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Privacy in the value chain: an important role for libraries past and future

The new report Surveying the Digital Future from the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School, says that internet users are increasingly concerned about their privacy:

The annual study of the impact of the Internet on Americans conducted by the Center for the Digital Future found that almost half of Internet users age 16 and older — 48 percent — are worried about companies checking their actions on the Internet.

press release and highlights

Users are more concerned about corporations than governments:

By comparison, the new question for the Digital Future Study found that only 38 percent of Internet users age 16 and older are concerned about the government checking what they do online.

It is not clear from the press release that respondents were asked about any specific activities or behaviors of governments or if they were asked about any specific laws such as the “PATRIOT” Act.

Providing users with privacy and confidentiality when they read is one of the key, long-term values of libraries. As we look to our future, we should invest in our ability to continue to do that by hosting digital content and providing users a way to securely and privately browse and read digital content.

See also:
Privacy: “I have nothing to hide”

Disintermediation

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


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